1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cooling jacket to receive physiological organs such as kidneys.
2. Background of the Invention
The ever-increasing frequency of organ surgery, including transplants lays more and more emphasis on the need to maintain the condition of in vitro and transplant organs. This is dependent primarily on lowering the organ temperature in order to achieve low organ metabolism.
Owing to the need to work with the organ within the body of the patient, a number of critical restraints are placed upon the formulation of the cooling/warming device to be used.
Often an organ for transplant must be held in vitro for long periods, for example, during transport from one hospital to another. Moreover, during the surgical process itself, it is important to maintain the organ for transplant in a condition of hypothermia until the latter stages of surgery. Thus, hypothermia should be maintained while the organ is located in the body cavity, while vessels, such as arteries, veins, urethra, etc. are connected and while it is fixed in position. Only immediately prior to start up should the temperature be allowed to rise to body temperature.
The positioning and connection procedures may take a considerable amount of surgical time and have been hampered by the presence of bulky cooling means for the organ. Moreover, cooling means providing uniform cooling over all parts of the organ have raised problems. Still further, cooling jackets of a great variety of different sizes have been necessary since, not only are different sizes necessary for different organs but may also be necessary for similar organs of different sizes. Thus, while it is clear that a heart and a kidney are of considerably different sizes, it may come as a surprise to the layman that kidneys or hearts or other organs may each come in markedly different sizes.
The following listed U.S. Pat. Nos. and article pertain to organ cooling devices:
______________________________________ 3,717,199 February 20, 1973 Dienst 4,108,146 August 22, 1978 Golden 4,416,281 November 22, 1983 Cooper et al 4,154,245 May 15, 1979 Daily 4,259,961 April 7, 1981 Hood 4,474,016 October 2, 1984 Winchell 4,530,220 July 23, 1985 Nambu et al ______________________________________ Article "Perfusion" 1986 1: 289-292, published October, 1986.
The patented devices of the prior art suffer from individual drawbacks that include rigidity, unsuitable shape and size, non-uniformity of cooling, clumsiness, and organ non-conformity.
In the case of the device described in the Perfusion article, the coolant path is highly convoluted, and subject to flow stagnation points. Furthermore, this device is intended for use with human hearts, forming a cone shaped pocket to accommodate the cone-like shape of the ventricle.